Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

The ten-day forecast has looked like this a few times in recent days. A visitor from Ireland currently in San Francisco posted one such on Instagram, with a shocked emoji, and I tried to reassure her that it often did not turn out as completely wet as it is made to look. Nevertheless, we have had some gloomy days, cold winds and plenty of rain, with more to come – perhaps it is karmic payback for gloating so much about the fine weather we had throughout January.

Impending rain meant that I moved the magnolia roam forward a day to Saturday – having already moved it forward a week as the trees were blossoming early with the January warm weather. Even though it was overcast, we had a big crowd for this enjoyable outing. 

Thus I had nothing on my calendar for Sunday, though of course it didn’t mean I did nothing: I took the opportunity to make further progress on rebuilding my old road bike, which was most recently stalled due to me having previously been sold handlebars that were too narrow a diameter for the purpose. I was able to do a multi-way switch of bars and now have what I need. I was even able to instal a new set of cables, which I feared might be beyond my skills. 

After a couple of satisfying hours, I was just cleaning up, then as I stood up, I felt my back tweak. I think it’s the fourth time in the past few years – and only a few months after the last time. It makes it very hard to move in certain directions, to bend or stretch – like trying to put on socks. Thankfully I can still sleep, though it hurts to turn over in bed. 

With Monday being Presidents Day, I only had the Suzuki Roshi on my schedule, and, as before, sitting zazen is pretty comfortable with this version of a bad back – though getting up from the floor afterwards takes some calculation. 

I decided to call off the Tuesday morning meditation at Mukunda, and work from home as well – which I was not sad about considering it was a filthy wet and cold day. It was also too wet to think about running errands on Wednesday morning; in the afternoon I managed to ride to Alchemy and back without getting wet, but making any effort on my bike was uncomfortable. The session was well-attended again, and I took the opportunity to lie down in the sauna for ten minutes or so beforehand, which eased many of the secondary aches.

Currently the forecast for Sunday afternoon, when the Peace Walk is scheduled, is dry, though previously an inch of rain was on the cards. We shall see how that plays out. Walking isn’t too painful on the whole, and hopefully things will have eased off somewhat by then.